Helping disabled people in developing countries

HEALTH: Billions Lack Access to Life-Saving Surgery

More than two billion people, mostly in low-income countries, lack adequate access to life-saving surgical procedures, which is a potential obstacle to achieving health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), say specialists.

“It is not news that the poor have worse access to hospital services like surgery. But the size of the population is a shock,” said Atul Gawande, associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health and head of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, Safe Surgery Saves Lives.